The Greer Gang operated out of Bonito City in Lincoln County
from 1900 to 1917. Their leader was John Franklin Greer, gun slinger,
train robber, gambler, soldier of fortune, and ladies man.
Green Berry Greer, John Franklin’s father, departed the area of
Clay County Missouri in 1881 headed for Texas. His mother, Mary
Ann Adams was the daughter of Martha James, a relative of the Jesse
James family. Green and his family, except for John Franklin, arrived
in Lincoln County in 1899. John Franklin Greer lingered in Pecos,
Texas to close the sale of the hardware store belonging to Green
Greer.
John began gambling in Pecos, but abruptly departed under heavy
gunfire. Two angry gamblers followed him toward New Mexico Territory
where John ambushed and killed his tormentors. Safely settled in
Lincoln County, John took up gambling in the boomtowns from Bonito
to White Oaks.
After a shooting near the Parsons Mine in the spring of 1910, he
fled to El Paso. John Franklin and a gambling accomplice named John
W. Gates pulled several robberies in Texas.
On 23 December 1910, John Franklin Greer robbed the prize of the
GH&SA Railroad, The Sunset Limited passenger train No. 10. Infuriated
railroad agents hunted his gang forcing them into Mexico where they
joined Francisco Madera’s army of revolution.
John darted into Texas to rob a street car which was part of the
rail transport system in El Paso. John robbed C. E. Graham, a wealthy
merchant, as he departed a car at the Campbell Street interchange.
John Franklin shot and killed Graham during the robbery. John Franklin
and John Gates quickly returned to Chihuahua to rejoin armed Mexican
revolutionists.
During the battle of Casas Grandes, John Franklin was shot in the
hip and in the head. His friend, John Gates, loaded him in a wagon
and hauled him to Columbus, New Mexico where he received medical
attention and slowly recovered. The gang broke up and planned to
meet in Deming, New Mexico at a later date.
John Franklin rode to the Silver City area where in August of 1911,
he and unknown accomplices held up the motor car carrying Superintendent
J. M. Sully of the Chino Mine Company who reportedly carried the
mine payroll.
A posse tracked John Franklin to Kneeling Nun Hill, but John surprised
the posse and relieved them of their horses, guns and pocket money.
John swiftly rode in the direction of Deming to rejoin his friend,
John W. Gates.
Upon his arrival in Deming, John Franklin discovered his friend
had been arrested and held in the Deming jail. John ventured into
the jail pretending to be a ranch hand seeking work, allowing him
to survey the jail’s layout.
John Franklin rode to the Greer’s San Andres Angora goat camp near
Sheep Mountain where his brother, William Randall, attended fifteen
hundred angora goats. John Franklin and William Randall departed
the next day, destined for Deming.
John entered the jail and quickly stuck a gun in the face of Sheriff
Dwight R. Stephens. Soon, the three bandits relaxed deep in the
timberland on the VXT Ranch. Sheriff Stephens pursued the gang,
and other posses formed as far away as Socorro and old Engle. After
a week of hunting for the gang, Stephen’s posse cornered the Greer
Gang in a steep canyon named Sandy Draw.
William Greer, rifle in hand, took a position two hundred feet away.
John Franklin Greer and John Gates approached the posse on foot
pretending to surrender. As they neared Sheriff Stephen’s horsemen,
John Franklin Greer drew his pistols firing. Gates broke and ran.
John Franklin, shooting from his hips, killed Deputy Smithers and
Deputy Hall. Then he fell dead from a swarm of stinging bullets.
The posse captured Gates that same hour. He would soon die with
a rope around his neck. Two other alleged members of the gang were
arrested in El Paso but released for lack of evidence. William Randall
Greer escaped, but his horse died after two miles of hard galloping
from a bullet wound in the flank. William Randall Greer walked home
to the distant Lincoln County.
William Randall almost died from exposure during the jeopardous
journey over a desolate landscape. He chattered deliriously when
a rancher found him near Carrizozo hiding in carrizo grass. The
county doctor secretly attended him, family friends nursed him,
then hid him from the intense search in Lincoln County by avenging
angry lawmen.
William departed Lincoln County before World War I began. He dressed
as a woman and was accompanied by Bragg relatives on the train from
Carrizozo to El Paso. He worked as a ranch hand in Texas before
traveling to the east coast. He joined the army during WWI.
On his deathbed in California William Randall confessed to a military
officer named Captain William B. Guion that he rode with the Greer
Gang lead by John Franklin Greer. His body was shipped to Carrizozo
from San Diego via the Sunset Limited, the same train that carried
the body of his brother, John Franklin Greer, years earlier, from
Deming, New Mexico.
His death was recorded under the assumed name of Fred W. Lindsay
in 1917. The very last of the last horseback outlaws passed into
history.
Sources: Greer family oral history; Greer family letters; Newspaper
accounts in the Carrizozo News; El Paso Herald; El Paso Morning
Times; El Paso Times; Silver City Enterprise; Hillsboro Sierra Free
Press; The Deming Headlight; The Deming Graphic; Death certificate
of Fred M. Lindsay--alias of William R. Greer; Military records
of William R. Greer; Letters from Governor William C. McDonald dated
16 April 1912 and 19 April 1912 addressed to Green Berry Greer.
C. W. Barnum ŠJuly 2001-2006